FRIENDS and colleagues last night paid tribute to a canoeing “legend” who died after getting trapped under his kayak in a flooded river.

Chris Wheeler, 46, a member of Abingdon’s Kingfisher Canoe Club, was pulled from the River Dart, near Newton Abbot, Devon, on Saturday afternoon.

The chartered surveyor, who worked at property firm Cluttons, in Seacourt Tower, Botley, Oxford, for 10 years, was a qualified instructor with 25 years kayaking experience.

Two fellow canoeists, who escaped unharmed, fought to free him after his kayak overturned and became stuck under a tree, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police described the trio as experienced but said they were canoeing in “challenging conditions” after the river was swollen by heavy rainfall.

Last night, members of the Wilsham Road canoe club were mourning Mr Wheeler, who lived in Reading.

His work colleagues at Cluttons, where he was a partner, also paid tribute. A statement said: “An experienced commercial chartered surveyor, Chris had been with the firm for 10 years. He was well known and respected in the Oxford business community.

“We extend our sympathies to his partner and family at this difficult time.”

Tributes were paid on Facebook and on canoe- kayak.co.uk, the website of the magazine Canoe and Kayak UK, a publication which Mr Wheeler regularly contributed to. He also wrote much of the South East section of the guidebook English White Water.

Mr Wheeler was nicknamed ‘Magic Knees’ after dislocating both joints at Conwy Falls, Wales, in the 1980s.

His love of water had taken him to rivers in Norway, Vietnam, Costa Rica and the United States.

Magazine editor Jason Smith said: “Chris was a very, very experienced paddler, with a wise head, and he was paddling on one of his favourite runs at a level that he would have been delighted with.”

On the magazine’s website, hundreds of people left messages of condolence, with one friend calling him an “ambassador” for the sport.

Cswalker wrote: “I’m in utter shock. Chris, rest in peace my friend, you will always be loved and missed, and we are at least glad your time came when you were in one of your favourite places.”